Audrey Leef ’43

In 1939, Audrey Vincentz was just 16 when she graduated from A.J. Demarest High School in Hoboken and enrolled as a mathematics major at what became known as Montclair State University. It was a bold decision for a teenage girl at the time.

“Montclair was highly recommended by my high school mathematics teacher. I was aware of their fine reputation and they invited me to come,” she recalls. “When I was a student at Montclair, we were taught to live with an attitude of carpe diem, or ‘seize the day,’ so I decided to seize the opportunity.”

She graduated in 1943, began her teaching career at Millburn High School and later broke down another barrier, becoming one of the first women to ever earn a master’s in mathematics at Stevens Institute of Technology in her hometown in 1947.

What would have been the culmination of anyone else’s life was just the start of her remarkable achievements. She met her future husband, George “Bob” Leef, at Stevens. They would adopt four children. Each year, she was approached by Montclair to join the math department. Eventually, when their youngest child turned five and went to kindergarten, Leef accepted the position and began a journey dedicated to helping students overcome the challenges of mathematics – and life.

“I was not intimidated by math because that’s the kind of mother I had. She was ahead of her time, ran her own businesses, felt women were important and encouraged me,” Leef says. “It came naturally to me with a mother like that.”

Leef, now 95 and a professor emerita of mathematics at Montclair State, is also a member of the University’s Foundation Board of Trustees. She bestows a scholarship in her name each year to a full-time or part-time student enrolled in at least one mathematics class. She taught thousands of Montclair State students from 1966 to 1992, while earning a doctorate in mathematics from Rutgers University – and a Master of Divinity from Drew University. Leef was ordained and served for five years as the youth minister at the First Congregational Christian Church of Irvington and as the assistant minister at Community Church of Mountain Lakes, where she remains pastor emerita.

“My religion has always been very important to me, and it had been a lifelong dream to become a minister,” she says. “However, when I was young, women were not allowed in the ministry. That had changed by the time I was in my 50s, and I had the opportunity to fulfill my dream.”

Leef continued her dream at Montclair State, where she became chaplain, saying her table in the student lounge, which she called “the listening post,” allowed her to split her time between tutoring struggling math students and providing spiritual guidance.

Looking back on her 79-year journey to counsel students, Leef says the goal is simple. “I am blessed because people have always been so supportive,” she says. “I want to live a life of service for as long as I can. It has always been so rewarding to live a life of service! I stress the same for all students: Serve others! Do what you can with what you have, because love never fails.”